These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.

Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.

The English in France
(1432)King Henry VI of England (one of the grandsons of Charles VI of France) claimed the throne of France (and quartered the fleurs-de-lis of France with the lions of England on the royal standard) as had his predecessors since Edward III, as descendants of Philip IV of France. The English had real power or influence in Brittany, Normandy, Flanders and Gascony, and actual possession of several coastal garrisons, in particular Calais, where the French inhabitants had been replaced by English. Henry VI came to the throne only seven years after his father had trounced the French at Agincourt; but his cousin, Charles VII, who became king of France in the same year, spent his long reign rebutting the English king's claim to his throne by territorial reconquest and consolidation. The English administration kept a series of records called the French Rolls. On these are recorded royal appointments and commissions in France; letters of protection and safe-conduct to soldiers, merchants, diplomats and pilgrims travelling to France from England and returning, and to foreign legations. There are also licences to merchants to export to the Continent, and to captains to transport pilgrims. As Henry VI's reign progressed, and the English grip on northern France loosened, the French Rolls also increasingly include entries concerning the ransoming of English prisoners.

BLAKEY. Cost: £6.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Close Rolls
(1429-1435)The close rolls of the 8th to 13th years of the reign of king Henry VI record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France. Also included is the Exchange Roll of 1424 to 1434, of licences to transmit sums of money out of the realm.

BLAKEY. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Yorkshire Testators and Legatees
(1484-1508)Wills and testaments from the diocese of York (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Hexhamshire, Lancashire north of the Ribble, and southwest Westmorland) registered at York. Richmond and Southwell archdeaconries had their own lower probate jurisdictions, so the wills registered at York are predominantly from the East and West Ridings and the eastern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In theory, wills dealt with real property and testaments with personal property, but the distinction hardly applies in practice: most of these wills are in Latin, but some are in English. Being before the Reformation, they commonly start with benefactions to churches, chantries, chapels, &c., and with provisions for the burning of candles ('lights') and saying of masses. This publication in 1869 by the Surtees Society as Testamenta Eboracensia iv is an edition by James Raine of selected wills from the period. Some additional material is included from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the York Dean and Chapter archives.

BLAKEY. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Lichfield Diocese Ordinations: Priests Secular
(1508)The diocese of Coventry and Lichfield at this period included the whole of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire; all Lancashire south of the Ribble; northern Shropshire (including Shrewsbury); and northern Warwickshire (including Birmingham and Coventry). Ordinations took place on the four Ember Saturdays in the year, and on certain other occasions; lists of ordinands to the degrees of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest were preserved in the ordination registers, a distinction being made between those clerks who were 'regular', i. e., monks, friars, &c., and those who were 'secular', the main body of the clergy. All ordinands were celibate, and those regular, and the secular who obtained benefices, remained so, but only a minority of the secular ordinands ever obtained benefices, and most will doubtless have married later in life. No man might be ordained to subdeacon or higher without proving either that he was of independent means or that he was sponsored by an institution or a gentleman. Most entries in the register of such ordinations therefore have the words 'ad titulum' followed by the name of the religious house that was the sponsor. This is an important indication of the man's origins - boys whose families were monastic tenants, and who were educated by the monks, would naturally be sponsored by the abbey. Only men who were born and bred in the diocese could be ordained by the bishop, unless producing letters dimissory from the bishop of the diocese of their birth. These are the ordinations celebrated on Ember Saturday, 23 September 1508, by Thomas, bishop of Panados (Pavados), suffragan of bishop Geoffrey Blythe, in Lichfield cathedral.

BLAKEY. Cost: £8.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Inhabitants of Suffolk
(1524)The lay subsidy granted by Act of Parliament in 1523 was a tax on the laymen (as opposed to clergy), levied on householders, landowners, those possessing moveable goods worth £1 or more, and all workmen aged 16 or over earning £1 or more per annum. Real estate was taxed at a shilling in the pound; moveable goods worth £1 to £2 at fourpence a pound; £2 to £20 at sixpence a pound; and over £20 at a shilling in the pound. Wages were taxed at fourpence in the pound. Aliens were charged double; aliens not chargeable in the above categories had to pay a poll tax of eightpence. The records of the assessment for the county of Suffolk, mostly made in 1524, survive in 64 rolls in the National Archives. From 42 of these a compilation for the whole shire was printed in 1910 as Suffolk Green Book x. This includes a list of defaulters of 1526 and a subsidy roll of 1534 for Bury St Edmunds.

BLAKEY. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries
(1546-1548)Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates were edited by William Page for the Surtees Society, and published from 1892.

BLAKEY. Cost: £6.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Tenants, founders and incumbents of Lancashire chantries
(1546-1554)Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates for Lancashire were edited by the Reverend F. R. Raines for the Chetham Society, and published from 1862.

BLAKEY. Cost: £6.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Tradesmen of York
(1272-1558)No man or woman could trade in the city of York without having obtained 'freedom' of the city.Their names were recorded on the 'Freemen's Roll', or Register of the Freemen of the City of York, which contains about 19,900 names for this period. A list of names was prepared for each year, the year being here reckoned as starting at Michaelmas (29 September) until 1373, and thence at Candlemas (2 February). Each annual list starts with the name of the mayor and the camerarii or chamberlains. The chamberlains were freemen charged with the duty of receiving the fees of the new freemen; of seeing that only freemen traded in the city; and of preparing this roll, which was compiled from the names on their own account books from the receipts for the fees. There are three groups of freemen: those who obtained freedom after serving out an apprenticeship to a freeman; the children of freemen; and those who claimed freedom by 'redemption', i. e. by purchase or gift from the Mayor and Court of Aldermen.

BLAKEY. Cost: £2.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Inhabitants of Lancashire
(1547-1558)Pleadings and depositions in the Duchy Court of Lancaster from the 1st year of Edward VI to the 5th and 6th of Philip and Mary were edited by lieutenant-colonel Henry Fishwick for the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society and published in 1899. The records include some long and detailed depositions about the precise facts of the cases: whereas plaintiffs and defendants were by and large from the landed gentry, deponents were often of much humbler stations in life, people who otherwise hardly appear in surviving records.

BLAKEY. Cost: £4.00.

Sample scan, click to enlarge

Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1556-1558)The Privy Council of king Philip and queen Mary was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters